利用者:SMOIP/sandbox

Indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO)

Indium gallium zinc oxide is a semiconducting material, consisting of indium（In） gallium（Ga）, zinc（Zn） and oxygen（O）, and often abbreviated by IGZO. IGZO thin-film transistor (TFT) is used in the TFT backplane of flat-panel displays (FPDs). IGZO-TFT was developed by Professor Hideo Hosono’s group at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) in 2003 (crystalline IGZO-TFT) and in 2004 (amorphous IGZO-TFT) . IGZO-TFT has 20-50 times higher mobilities than that of amorphous silicon, which has been used for current liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) and electronic papers; therefore, IGZO-TFT can improve operation speed, resolution and size of FPDs, and is also considered as one of the most promising TFTs to drive organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays.

IGZO-TFT and applications are patented by JST , and have been licensed to Samsung Electronics in 2011, Sharp in 2012, etc.

Sharp started the world's first production of LCD panels Incorporating IGZO-TFT in 2012. Sharp employs IGZO-TFT for smartphones, tablets, 32" LCD, etc, in which aperture ratio of the LCDs are improved by up to 20%, and their power consumption is improved by LCD idling stop technology owing to the high mobility and low off current of IGZO-TFT. Sharp started to release high pixel density panels for notebook application. IGZO-TFT is also employed in 14" 3,200x1,800 LCD of an ultrabook PC supplied from Fujitsu and 55" OLED TV supplied from LG Electronics .

Its advantage over zinc oxide is that it can be deposited as a uniform amorphous phase while retaining the high carrier mobility common to oxide semiconductors. The transistors are slightly photo-sensitive, but the effect becomes significant only in the deep violet to ultra-violet (photon energy above 3 eV), offering the possibility of a fully transparent transistor.